Westbrae Wash & Dry

This is a question as opposed to a review.
Does anyone know what the backstory is relative to health issue that resulted in this business closing? Both the guys that ran the place seemed very focused on providing a quality shop and spent a lot of time by being on-​site to ensure it.
Hearing that a customer oriented business like Westbrae Wash Dri had to close for such a reason in a sudden manner is beyond disturbing.
Any information will be greatly appreciated.

First off to the other reviewers. The «creepy old guy» is very nice when you know how to do laundry. He sized me up when I first came in. He saw I sorted my clothes, measured my soap, added essential oil to u scented instead of crap fragrance (try it some time, it’s great), and didn’t over load the machines. He thanked me for knowing how to do laundry. If you don’t like it the advice, don’t take. Ruin your half clean clothes. Clothes wear out faster and retain more stains when you over fill. The 4 dollar one holds more and front loaders clean clothes better. I use it and it is worth it.
Oh, and he talks about people? Like you didn’t come on here and post remarks. Seriously, this site IS passive aggressive in nature.
The place is always clean when I come in. It’s nice the owner cares about this place. He is a nice helpful guy. Very knowledgeable on doing laundry. He will even guard your stuff when you make a bunch of trips. The machines are old but maintained and honestly most of the new features to a washing machines are a joke for rich «housewives» that can’t clean. I enjoy my biweekly trips here since I moved here a few months ago.

My clothes would get cleaned most of the time, but every now and then, something gets completely ruined, either from a new rust stain in a conspicuous spot or from bleach (I don’t use bleach). Either way, there’s no fixing it. I’d rather pay more to not run this risk. Other laundromats don’t do this.
Other laundromats also don’t have two naggy and defensive old men policing the place, scrutinizing your every move, assuming the worst and warning you not to do x, y, or z. To be fair, I think they’re nice guys mostly, but I’m just saying, it’s the kind of environment that makes you a little uncomfortable, and you just want to leave when you’re done. I’m not female, but I see what other reviewers are talking about — expect get extra attention if you are female.
All in all, if you can go a little farther or pay a little extra to go to «the other laundromat», it’s probably a good idea.

Sorry to say but these two old guys that run this place are kind of on crack. The older taller of the two is the worst; very abrasive and moody manner. They are both passive aggressive and aggressive. They are constantly closely monitoring, which is a bit unnerving, especially while the majority of the time they do this they are also judging (and expressing prejudices) and verbally complaining out-​loud to each other about some other customer or to another customer whom they are chatting with or complaining to.
They have this stupid unspoken rule they get either passive aggressive or aggressive about. You don’t know you’ve broken this rule until they finally snap and get outwardly aggressive instead of passive.
They don’t want people to fill up the regular size washers and instead they want people to use the oversize load washer that they say is cheaper overall and holds more clothes compared to the regular size one. and if you have clothes that fit in one of those regular size washers they want you to use two instead of 1 washer, a 2 to 1 ratio on the regular washers. Who wants to be told how many washers you are required to use when you go wash your clothes? Ridiculous. So they then try to intimidate people until they use the oversize load washer instead.
FIRST OF ALL they have ONLY TWO (2) oversize washers in the whole place! And they have about 25 of the smaller washers! They claim that the smaller washers break down a lot because people overload them. If they have such an issue with the use of their smaller washers then they need to purchase and replace all of them with larger or oversize washers that can handle a normal load so they can stop peeing their pants and intimidating customers each time someone goes to use a smaller washer. Their washers and dryers are all very old so they need to stop complaining, charge a lot less, or be quiet.
The dryers have a similar issue. The whole middle section of the dryers don’t seem to work or the dry settings are too low and everyone avoids them. Same thing, they need to replace their dryer inventory also and stop blaming the customer. These guys seem really miserable and it shows. Not a great place to go to wash your clothes in peace.

OK, folks are complaining that the «creepy» owner moved their clothes into the dryer. Did you mention that he’s giving you a freebie? I had a couple errands, so he said he’d transfer my clothes. When I came back and saw my clothes tumbling in 4 dryers, I asked how much I owed. He waved me off and said «we’re like a bar, we pour a free one sometimes.»
Yes, he’s an odd character, but Berkeley is full of them. $ 4 for large front loader was a bit high.

Not the best laundromat, but certainly not the worst. It obviously hasn’t been remodeled since the 70s, and is showing a lot of wear, but seemed reasonably clean. This creepy owner I read about in other reviews wasn’t there when I was. In fact, there appeared to be no one running the place. I had my own change, and the machines worked fine, despite also seeming pretty old, so luckily I didn’t need any help.
I’m not a germaphobe by any means, but I wouldn’t sit and hang out on that couch. I walked to the grocery store nearby and got a snack instead.
(Since I drafted this review I’ve been back, and the owner is unpleasant. I successfully ignored him and went about my business, but he is definitely not my favorite, and was complaining loudly with a regular about other customers who complained about him.)

I live really close the laundrymat so I was excited that I wouldn’t have to walk too far to do my laundry. The couple of times that I had done my laundry, I would walk back to my house during the washing portion and then come back to move my clothes into the dryer when time was up. Every time I came back to swap machines, the really creepy laundry troll had moved my clothes into the dryer without my consent. I originally thought it was someone who wanted to use the washing machine but then realized it was him when there wasn’t anyone else around. He’s pretty creepy, always sweet talking some girl on the phone and then stares at you if you’re a girl doing laundry. I felt really so grossed out whenever I had to pick up my now moved laundry that I would want to re-​wash my laundry. The place is pretty groddy, the coin machine will only take $ 1s or $ 5s (there is no option to get change) and as someone mentioned in another post, the couch probably hasn’t been cleaned since the 80s.
The last straw was after my 5^th wash. I was texting my boyfriend after my clothes were moved yet again and he had a talk with the guy. The guy got defensive and said that he was only trying to help. That was the last time we did laundry there.
Since then, we’ve gone to this nice 24 hour laundry place off of Solano Ave. It’s a great/​safe neighborhood, people are extremely friendly and there are more washing machines/​dryers. In addition, the guy that works at this laundrymat is really friendly, helps out whenever any of the machines are malfunctioning and will answer any of your questions. He also doesn’t touch my laundry.

Ken. F. below me is right on target. The only guy that manages the place is this old fart that stares at women who go in to wash their clothes. I came in wearing a tye-​dye shirt and saw he kept an eye on me the whole time, even across the room. He really wasn’t doing anything but standing there watching.
I had to walk past him to get my hampers near the window, and he goes «LOO-​KIN GOOD». Please old guy, would you get a life? What are you like, 60? and I’m like 20? There were other women in the room when this happened and nobody said a thing.
If you’re a guy and this doesn’t pertain to you, it’s useful to know they have short hours of operation (closing at 5) and their machines are not that new. The machines are also kind of expensive. I washed some bed sheets there and when they came out, they smelled like other people’s detergents (that’s never happened to me at other laundromats).

Even though this place is one block from my home, I no longer go there. The «laundry troll,» as he is referred to in one of the above reviews made the weekly chore unbearable. Without fail, he would saunter in while I was doing my laundry and berate me for having violated some unbeknownst-​to-​me laundry protocol, like putting too many clothes in a machine, tracking leaves into the laundromat with my shoes (it was raining) or closing the dryer door too hard. The last straw was when he point blank told me «if you do that again, I’m going to ask you to leave.» Happily, I left on my own accord, finding a much friendler (and cleaner) place, just a few minutes more away by car. My clothes never really got that clean (something I realize now that I am going to a place with state-​of-​the-​art machines) with the dated machines anyway.

Westbrae Wash & Dry’s convenient location, well maintained machines, and clean interior isn’t enough to rope me in as a regular customer. I have some qualms with this place.
The first is the age and variety of the machines. They’re all very old and most don’t have options like a double-​rinse. The washing machines here are mostly top-​loading, so you have to worry about packing them too tight and distributing the weight evenly. The majority of the machines are on the small side, but cost just as much to use as the one or two bigger machines, meaning you’ll probably have to split up your loads and pay more cash. The machine prices are also relatively higher than most Laundromats I’ve used. Also, if you have to do your laundry after work or on the weekend, you’ll have a hard time finding open machines to do your laundry since the place is so relatively small.
My other issue is with the management. There’s only one man running the show and like HL S. has said, he’s kind of creepy. He comes off as being a little on the cranky side. If he talks to you, it’s a half-​mumbled bark that usually comes off as a little condescending. He’s by no means a bad guy, can be very helpful, and I’ve grown to like him, but dealing with him is often a strange test of patience and understanding.
Those issues aside, Westbrae’s location for me is excellent and serves as a good backup place for me to do a quick load of laundry when I’m in a bind. Westbrae Wash & Dry could easily fill a good niche for me if they were open later, but it closes relatively early in the evenings.

This is the only place within walking distance to my house, so I still go here occasionally out of desperation and not wanting to pile 2 loads of laundry on my scooter like someone from a 3^rd world country.
It’s $ 2/​wash load, which is on the high end of normal. The washers will sometimes not work, the older dryers occasionally would leave streaks of oil (?) on my clothing until I switched to the very-​few newer ones.
Mostly-​ok, though, but there’s a dude who works here (I shall call him the Laundry Troll) who is CREEPY. He’s moved my things a few times from smaller dryers into a large, berating me upon my return that I should have used the larger, better dryers. (They were FULL when I put my stuff in, otherwise I would have!). Creepy that he’s touching my stuff, you know? He also sometimes closes early, which is less-​than-​ideal.
But, uh… like I said, within walking distance from my house. So, occasionally, I go. And, it’s clean enough on all the sanitizable surfaces.
p. s. don’t touch the couch, it’s filthy.

Pros: Very clean and in good shape in comparison to other laundromats. There’s a couch to sit on and magazines to read, which is nice. There’s also some arcade games in a separate little room in the back, which is a fun time-​killer. The prices are pretty reasonable and I’ve never had any problems with stuff being stolen or the machines messing up my clothes.
Cons: Some of the machines can be pretty noisy. Especially the washers, which will sometimes suddenly make a very loud, high-​pitched screeching noise that startles me every time still. They also close kind of early, 7:00 PM on Sundays I believe.
Overall a good place to do laundry.

The mural: Awseomely cute.
The packman machine and other intensely cool arcade video games: Epic.
The perfect place to do Laundry in North berk-​town.
Love it.
As of 2003:
Open Sun-​Wed: 6:00 am– 6:00 am
Thurs-​Sat: 6:00 am– 10:00 pm
Last wash: 1 hour before closing